Coming UMKC innovation center to serve students, entrepreneurs
May 13, 2015 | Bobby Burch
![NixonPressConf[4]](https://startlandnews.tinythunder.dev/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/NixonPressConf4.jpg "NixonPressConf[4]")
With funding shored up from private and public donors, the University of Missouri-Kansas City is planning to move ahead with its plan to build the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center to support students and entrepreneurs.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon shakes hands with UMKC Chancellor Leo E. Morton. Photo by Janet Rogers/UMKC.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced Tuesday that the state is allocating $7.4 million to the center, which represents half of the funding for the new $14.8 million building that will be built at 215 Volker Boulevard. The Robert W. Plaster Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation offered the initial private funds.
“The Free Enterprise Center at UMKC will provide greater opportunities for creativity and collaboration among students, faculty and businesses, and strengthen the Kansas City region’s position as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship,” Gov. Nixon said in a release.
The prototyping and product development center will serve students, entrepreneurs and the larger business community with a variety of resources, including a lab, rapid prototyping equipment, 3D printers and a business incubator.
“This facility will support education and economic development across the board,” UMKC Chancellor Leo E. Morton said in a release. “It will help entrepreneurs, inventors and small business be more successful in their ventures. And students from middle school to graduate school will get a first-hand taste of entrepreneurship and become grounded in the discipline of innovation.”
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
CBD startup: Young father sees Native Hemp Co. as the launch of a health revolution
At 21 years old, Rich Dunfield IV felt like an absentee father, he said. Struck in his prime with painful ailments after a tick bite — nerve and belly problems, anxiety and depression — he was home but not present. “My entire life was rooted in fatherhood. I started young, but I embraced it. Lyme…
New Lawrence Blade & Timber just the edge of Swell Spark’s ongoing brand evolution
A newly opened Lawrence Blade & Timber — well-positioned on the college town’s popular Massachusetts Street — features the axe-throwing brand’s first “retailtainment” concept. It’s a reflection of parent company Swell Spark’s ongoing push to keep Blade & Timber (as well as the Choir Bar and Breakout businesses) fresh amid an increasingly crowded experience-based entertainment…
25th anniversary: Roasterie founder Danny O’Neill recalls humble start with just ‘nickels and pickles’
Brewed in a recession, Danny O’Neill wasn’t sure The Roasterie would sell a single cup of coffee, let alone percolate into an iconic Kansas City brand, the founder said as he reflected on the regional coffee titan’s 25th anniversary. “The only idea I had was coffee,” O’Neill said of his decision to jump ship from…
KC Crew’s fall leagues set to be first players in overhauled Hy-Vee Arena
The newly renovated Hy-Vee Arena in Kansas City’s West Bottoms is like a giant sports coworking space, said Luke Wade. Coffee shops, restaurants, chiropractors, physical therapists, and other offerings are joining his adult sports and events company in the revamped former Kemper Arena facility, said Wade, founder of KC Crew. And although the arena officially…